Are We Still a Democracy?

Are we still a democracy? I think that is a good question and not one asked hyperbolically or in the ‘sky is falling’ moment of hysteria or panic. Serious people are asking that question and the answers may not be to your liking. I struggle that I even have to ask that question, but one must in today’s America. A demagogue rules America by fiat and edict. Two reports offer a snap shot of the health of America’s democracy. You be the judge.

This past November the Charles F. Kettering Foundation published a report on Americans attitudes towards democracy.  This report was done in conjunction with Gallup, a respected polling organization.  

Their conclusion was, that overall, Americans were committed to democracy, but with clearly defined differences in how one’s age defines how one perceives democracy as an ideal and how one’s economic circumstances impact perceptions of democracy’s effectiveness in solving problems.  

If you are over 65 democracy is super.  A robust 80 percent are strongly committed to democracy.  If you are under 29 not so much.  Only about 53 percent say that democracy is the best form of government. Economics also played a role in how one perceived democracy is performing.  If you are ‘living comfortably’ about a third gave democracy a thumbs up.  Those who say it is ‘very difficult to get by’ only 12 percent give democracy a thumbs up.  For those that ‘feel disconnected from their communities’ or question their status in society are likely to question democracy’s ‘value and performance.’

In another report recently released, researchers at a Swedish University published a report on the global health of democracy.  Their tenth annual report.  According to the V-DEM Institute website, the report is an analysis of “….the largest global dataset on democracy with over 32 million data points for 202 countries and territories from 1789 to 2025.  The report involves over four thousand scholars and other country experts and measures over 600 different attributes of democracy.” Go to the this link to read the report: https://www.v-dem.net/documents/75/V-Dem_Institute_Democracy_Report_2026_lowres.pdf)

It does not look good for the world, much less the United States.  Devoting an entire section of the annual report, the authors addressed democratic backsliding in the United States. They conclude that the United States is no longer a liberal (small l liberal) democracy, primarily because of the unprecedented and rapid concentration and accumulation of power in the presidency and the dismantling of our constitutional checks and balances.  I think they are right. They also conclude that America’s fall from democracy to autocracy was done in record time.  Faster than both Turkey’s and Hungary’s slip into the autocratic abyss. In a rank ordered list of 179 countries for strength of democratic values and norms, America has slipped to 51^st.  Yeah, make America great again.

So, it appears most Americans still believe in the great experiment called democracy, but, paradoxically, a majority do not believe democracy is working in America.  

Given the K-shaped economy, where wealth inequality continues to grow rapidly in America, it is no surprise that Americans tend to be skeptical of democracy, but strangely unskeptical of unrestrained capitalism.  Democracy doesn’t make one unequal, capitalism does. One should not conflate an economic system (capitalism) with a political system (democracy).  That’s not to say, however, that they are mutually exclusive; one should try to understand them as interacting spheres of power.  Our democratic decline is a reflection of America’s broken political economy.

The Kettering Foundation report does to some extent explain why many Americans, it seems, are indifferent to the collapse of American democracy. The V-DEM institute report shows the result of that indifference in hard numbers, at least at the federal level.

Where are we then as a country?  And where do we go from here?

At a federal level, yes, I think we are no longer a democracy.  Our system has collapsed.  Trump’s war in Iran is an example of our spectacular fall from a constitutional system of checks and balances to complete and utter deference to Trump by Congress.  Only an absolute monarch takes their country to war without consulting the people.  That is exactly what Trump did, and Congress cowered like the spineless shits they are.

The courts are still functioning as defined but has no ability to enforce its decisions.  These court decisions are theoretically enforced by the executive department, a department that in many instances has given the Court’s the middle finger. As such, Trump’s threat to take over the mid-term elections and challenge the results should be taken at full face value.  

At the state level, at least in Virginia, we still are a democracy.  Some states like Texas, Oklahoma, and Florida are authoritarian regimes, by my estimates.  Wrecking the barriers that separate church and state, restricting women’s rights, demanding schools teach white heritage and not real history, imposing voting barriers such as a de facto poll taxes (getting a passport for instance, which costs a couple hundred dollars), restricting and banning books, to list a few.

The question then becomes not only about democracy, but whether our social contract as a united country can survive, or is it in terminal decline?  Is it possible for America to remain a federation of united states, some liberal democracies while others theocratic autocracies? A king like president punishing states and rewarding others?

Fundamentally, and I acknowledge this, our perceived health of our democracy seems to be defined by where one is standing in the political spectrum. Some think Trump hasn’t gone far enough while others think he is gone way to far; many others just want to pay for gas and feed their family. It’s complex, it’s fluid, it’s uncertain. Our crisis of democracy, I think is a crisis of identity. It’s about whose America this is and whether democracy is the solution, or as some argue, the problem?